The President scolded Congress about the defeat of proposals for expanded background checks today. Instead of scolding, he should come clean with the truth of what “expanded background checks mean,” not the who, but the WHAT that’s being reported, which in fact is part of the mandate that the President spoke about after the Newtown shootings. Stunningly, since immunity for reporting on their patients is being provided to mental health professionals, they aren’t protesting the erosion of doctor-patient confidentiality that new laws, such as the one passed in NY promise.
Perhaps the liberal obliverati (yes, my made-up word created as the opposite of the intellectual literati) will be quiet long enough to consider that their role in misinforming Americans does not go unnoticed. Instead of cheering for hasty, sweeping legislation, they could be applying their self-declared intelligence to thoroughly informing the public about why reasonable people might be concerned about a standardless reporting mandate for mental health professionals that simultaneously provides those professionals with immunity for any report they make and how that might deter individuals from seeking mental health assistance.
It’s what happened with Obamacare. Obamacare is one example of how mischaracterizing and incompletely describing legislation to the American people has resulted in further erosion of the resources available to middle class Americans. The result was the passage of a law that few understood and the mass pulling the wool over the eyes of Americans, many of whom are just now realizing that many of the results they were scared of under the Republicans are occurring under the Democrats, higher costs, less coverage and more taxes (payroll up 2 percent).
The gap between expectation based on misinformation and reality is causing objections from more than the demonized right, and the obliverati should be paying attention to that. For months, we’ve been hearing about union objections to Obamacare, specifically disclosing how Obamacare is not the dream come true unions anticipated in the face of rising health premiums.
Suddenly, unions are worried and members are upset that their benefits will cost more and are hoping to find legal permission and loopholes to allow low-earning union workers access to the federal government’s subsidy programs under PPACA (search for Sheet Metal Workers Union, Randy Beall) because they worry that workers won’t want union jobs that have to charge more to employees in order to provide healthcare options that comply with PPACA.
The background check defeat coincides with an Aetna announcement and liberal response of, “No fair,” as Aetna attempts to use a “loophole” to allow for early enrollment in order to use the “grandfathering” provisions of Obamacare that will allow it to avoid having to move people into plans that comply with Obamacare on 1/1/14. (Search Aetna reenrollment plan to avoid Obamacare, 4/13).
We’ve already heard how insurance companies that are complying with limits on what can be charged to employees as premiums for healthcare insurance coverage are using the “loophole” of charging exorbitant premiums for family coverages as a means of saving money, pricing many families out of participation in employer plans.
Loopholes result from careless legislation, passed just so that the President could say that he did. It is experience that is finally providing the information that the obliverati might have shared if they’d put down their pom-poms and authentically considered what was proposed. After all, it is the President who set the stage for using loopholes.
Consider the President and his almost instantaneous relinquishment of one of the biggest selling points of a reformed health insurance policy, a public option. He broke that promise by using the “bad Republican” loophole acting as if he suddenly realized that Republicans wouldn’t go for his proposed legislation.
Consider the President’s inclusion of punishment by tax/fine for those without health insurance, hardly part of the publicized and noble cause he promoted. The President himself found a loophole, making the tax a separate part of the PPACA incorporating IRS rules.
And guns. The President doesn’t want expanded background checks of the same information currently disclosed, he wants expanded background checks that include MORE information (at least that’s what he talked about after Newtown and expanding reporting by mental health professionals), and we don’t know what those guidelines are. He’s put the cart before the horse, standards first, then vote on whether such expansion is acceptable.
Today’s defeat shouldn’t have the obliverati spinning their heads in contempt, they should be empathizing with the guy that experiences situational depression and is “reported” by a mental health professional who has immunity which could make that guy unable to ever legally purchase a gun. It can ONLY chill the efforts to have people seek mental health services in the face of such unclear standards of doctor/patient confidentiality.
We’re living the consequences of half-baked legislation as group after individual after group is realizing how Obamacare is impacting their lives. We should NOT continue to be emotionally manipulated and shamed into accepting a premature deal, an incomplete proposal or a bumper-sticker summary of what we’re being asked to agree to.
